Sharing science
Decadal Plan for Space Science
Communicating
astrobiology
in public
My doctoral thesis tackles a basic question in science communication: what can we expect of new young adult citizens emerging from high school in terms of scientific literacy? Should we see an improvement on the very low levels of scientific literacy found among adult audiences in Europe and America?
This thesis challenges the notions we have about scientific literacy - that it is a known quantity that we can teach, expect students will learn and that it can be tested among public audiences. This is not esoteric, but fundamental to both science education and what we expect to do by 'educating' or informing the public about science and its discoveries. Without knowing the audience - even just broadly as it must be for the 'general' public - there is little hope of knowing if the specific messages of science are being understood. Essentially, scientists are being expected to communicate into the public domain without ever knowing the effects of that communication, or even the degree to which the messages of science are received in the public domain. With few special exceptions - the scientist science communicators who can 'read' their audiences - scientists lack the information needed to allow them to communicate to their students and among other researchers. It is not simply dropping the necessary jargon language of science, but in the crafting and delivery for the target audience.
The questions associated with scientific literacy straddle science, formal and informal education, science communication, sociology, and media studies, among other areas; it takes in many aspects from the way we learn as children and adults to cultural and societal influences, politics, and religion and other belief systems.